OnePlus Nord 2T Review: A worthy successor to Nord 2?

OnePlus Nord 2T Pro review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.75/5

The Nord series by OnePlus has helped the brand expand its reach in the mass segment of the Indian market. To strengthen its hold further, OnePlus has launched the Nord 2T smartphone for the Indian market. Much like other Nord devices, the smartphone is affordable and comes with impressive specs like Dimensity 1300 chipset, 80W SuperVOOC charging, and more. However, in today’s day and age when competition is stiff, will Nord 2T be able to offer anything that its competitors don’t? Read on to find out. [हिन्दी में पढ़ें]

OnePlus Nord 2T Review: Design

The OnePlus Nord 2 T’s looks and feel is one of its strongest suits. While the dimensions, and facia of the phone are identical to Nord 2, it also manages to retain classic OnePlus elements. My review unit came in the Jade Fog color variant and it has a smooth glass finish on the backside. The variant with a Gray paint job has a textured back that might remind you of the initial OnePlus One. It has a sandstone-ish finish at the back and the alert slider has also returned. The phone shall is primarily made of plastic and the device is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

The back sees a large camera module and the size of the smartphone is subject to the user’s interpretation as it might be appropriate for some users and not so for others. This is because the front side has a 6.43-inch screen which might make the phone slightly bigger for some people. Having said that, I have average Indian size hands and I was quite comfortable holding and using the OnePlus Nord 2T with a single hand.  The Nord 2T weighs 190 grams and its curved edges ensure a comfortable grip in the user’s hands.

The camera module has 2 camera circles having different colors which contain 3 lenses. The module’s design is quite distinctive.

The bottom has a Type-C USB port, SIM Tray, and bottom-firing speakers but there is no headphone jack. The right side has a power button and volume rockers along with an alert slider. There is an in-display fingerprint scanner that unlocks the device fairly quickly. If you like there’s also an option for face unlock as well.

OnePlus Nord 2T Review: Display

OnePlus Nord 2T sports a 6.43-inch AMOLED panel with a pixel resolution of 2400×1080 pixels. The display is bright, sharp, and colorful.  On the Nord 2T screen your apps, photos, and videos look easier on the eye and crisper as well. It has a refresh rate of 90Hz which works well while you are browsing but the difference is felt while gaming. With a touch sampling rate capped at 180Hz, it is clearly made keeping casual gaming in mind.

The Nord 2T screen suits those who consume content on their phone via various OTT apps. The OTT streaming experience is good due to punchy colors, excellent contrast ratio, and HDR 10+ support. At 600 nits, the brightness level is somewhat satisfactory. The screen also offers good viewing angles from all sides. There is a punch-hole cutout on the top left for the selfie camera.

OnePlus Nord 2T Review: Camera

OnePlus Nord 2T comes does not come with a premium camera setup but that won’t be a problem unless you need a phone with exceptional camera features. It has a triple camera setup at the back which includes a 50MP main, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP monochrome sensor for black and white shots. Let’s talk about the performance of these lenses now.

The 50MP main camera comes with OIS. It clicks good shots in daylight but the performance suffers a bit when the light is not available. The shots taken in daylight are sharp and bright with paunchy colors. There are enough details as well but these details seem lost in nighttime clicks. The autofocus too isn’t that great but that doesn’t show much in the quality of the images.

Coming to the 8MP ultrawide camera, it clicks decent wide-angle shots depending on the light conditions and the subject in the frame.

The 2MP lens clicks just about average images and is better off unused. It would have been better if a 2MP telephoto lens would have been used instead of a monochrome one.

The 32MP selfie camera at the front clicks bright images with real skin tones but the selfies lacked detailing. The focus was kept on the subject with the background being secondary and the colors were accurate. There was very less noise in the selfies.

OnePlus Nord 2T can make 4K videos at 3fps or 1080p at 60fps. Videos are not shaky or saturated. They look just about decent.

OnePlus Nord 2T Review: Performance

OnePlus Nord 2T is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset. It is the first smartphone in the Indian market with this chipset. It doesn’t seem to bring much improvement over Dimensity 1200 SoC as the cores types and their clock speeds remain the same. MediaTek has repackaged the Dimensity 1200 along with HyperEngine 5 for better gaming performance.

OnePlus has combined the Dimensity 1300 SoC with up to 12GB LPDDR 4X RAM and 256GB  UFS 3.1 storage. The OnePlus 2T we reviewed had 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. In terms of performance, the phone handled everything well. The apps load and close swiftly. Browsing in chrome on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram is super smooth and fast. The multitasking experience was also good. Gaming on the Nord 2T is also smooth for the most part. Games like CoD Mobile, and Asphalt 9 ran well even with high frame rates and HD-level graphics.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, we ran throttle test, Antutu, Geekbench 5, and other tests. Here are the results:

In terms of software, OnePlus Nord 2T runs Android 12 with Oxygen OS 12.1 on top. The Oxygen OS gives a clean and smooth performance with some good customization features. It has an always-on display and a private safe for storing data in an encrypted format. You can personalize your software experience the way you want. It is a clean UI with no bloatware or adware. Thermal performance is also decent as the smartphone never heats up too much. It might get slightly warm sometimes, but that won’t be a bother.

OnePlus has promised 3 major Android OS updates and 4 years of security updates, which is the same for all OnePlus devices. The smartphone is IP52 rated for water resistance and capable which makes it a perfect future-ready device. It has bottom-firing stereo speakers whose audio quality is average. The speakers are ok for casual listening but not meant for audiophiles as the audio lacks depth.

OnePlus Nord 2T Review: Battery

OnePlus Nord 2T is packed with a 4500mAh battery that lasts an entire day on a single charge with light to moderate usage. The usage might include calling, messaging, browsing, watching videos, listening to music, and more. However, if you are an avid gamer who has long gaming sessions, then you will need to charge the device earlier.

For those who don’t have time to spare, Nord 2T comes with 80W SuperVOOC wired charging. The charger takes about 32 minutes to charge the 4500mAh battery from 0 to 100%. Thus, we can say that OnePlus Nord 2T has no complaints in the battery and charging department.

OnePlus Nord 2T Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

OnePlus Nord 2T is an excellent successor to OnePlus Nord 2. The device might not look extraordinary from the surface but does come with its own share of pros. It has a fast processor, an amazing display, super-fast charging, and a design that can make you nostalgic. It is 5G ready and is rated IP52 as well along with having a clean UI. Although the camera setup is not premium and the refresh rate is on the lower side, but those are small niggles that can be overlooked. If you are looking for an all-rounder with 5G in under the 30k price range, OnePlus Nord 2T can be your choice.

OnePlus Nord 2T FAQ:

Q: Does the OnePlus Nord 2T come with an Alert Slider?

A: Yes, OnePlus has placed an Alert Slider on the right side edge of the phone.

Q: Is OnePlus Nord 2T a 5G phone?

A: Yes, the OnePlus Nord 2T is a 5 G-ready phone.

Q: What are the 5G bands supported by OnePlus Nord 2T?

A: The Oneplus Nord 2T supports the following 5G bands – 5G SA: 1/3/5/8/28/40/41/78; 5G NSA: 40/41/78

Q: Does the OnePlus Nord 2T include a Notification light?

A: No, the OnePlus Nord 2T does not feature a notification light.

Q: Does the OnePlus Nord 2T has Dolby Atmos Audio support?
No OnePlus Nord 2T, does not support Dolby Atmos.